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Did you know that the city of Grovetown once was the site of a bustling train station, with regular passenger service bringing Augusta residents out to the country for a respite from the city’s hot, humid summers by the river?

And did you know Grovetown’s train depot originally included a Dutch-style windmill?

One of the companies that scrubs homes and businesses after fires has a reassuring slogan (paraphrased): “As if it never happened.”

That’s a great promise for a messy cleanup. It’s not so great when it comes to public records, and that’s an unfortunate side-effect of House Bill 1176, a bundled series of criminal justice reforms approved by the Georgia Legislature and awaiting the governor’s signature.

There are two distinct types of people in our community this week: Visitors who’ve come to town, and locals who haven’t left.

For the locals who stuck around, we know how magical this week can be – and the challenges it can offer. Yet the biggest challenge isn’t fighting through the unexpected traffic or having to wait in line at a favorite restaurant. For year-round residents, the challenge during Masters Week is to be patient enough to make sure all those visitors feel welcome.

Each year, it seems, there’s some new wrinkle to Georgia’s lottery-funded prekindergarten program.

Last year, with legislative approval, Gov. Nathan Deal slashed the pre-k year by 20 days, to 160, but added 10,000 slots for pupils. This year, he added back 10 of those days and eliminated 2,000 slots.

The departure of Beda Johnson as director of Columbia County’s Convention and Visitors Bureau was painful and uncomfortable.

Painful, because she was the only director the fledgling organization has known, and because she was such a tirelessly enthusiastic booster of Columbia County. And it was uncomfortable, because everyone involved remained so tight-lipped, at least publicly, about the philosophical differences that led to her departure. It’s difficult to fix problems if they’re kept secret.

Wherever she is now, Melissa Chase certainly has to count herself lucky.

The former Harlem High School PE teacher was facing a 10-year prison term for her sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student when Chase’s conviction was thrown out on appeal. The state Supreme Court in 2009 agreed that the flawed law allowed consent as a defense in such cases.

Because the student was old enough to be a willing participant, Chase was free to go.

Monday’s “lactivist” protest on the front lawn of the Columbia County Justice Center certainly stirred passions.

Versions of the story appearing on Web sites for The News-Times and The Augusta Chronicle were heavily debated through reader comments.

The event wasn’t so much protest as it was an effort to raise awareness of an issue: The fear of breast-feeding mothers that they’ll be arrested if they nurse their children in public. It was part of a statewide “Nurse-In,” held in locations where it could get the most visibility.

The images of destruction from the record-setting number of tornados that blew through the Midwest and Southeast this past week are hard to fathom, and heart-wrenching.

More than three dozen people were killed in states from Illinois to Virginia, and through Alabama and Georgia. As the worst of the storm speared Friday evening through west Georgia, the line of the approaching front spanned all the way into our community.